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Cold heavy oil production with sands (CHOPS) is a common oil extraction method in the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan that can result in significant methane emissions due to annular venting. Little is known about the magnitude of these emissions, nor their contributions to the regional methane budget. Here the authors present the results of field measurements of methane emissions from CHOPS wells and compare them with self-reported venting rates. The tracer ratio method was used not only to analyze total site emissions but at one site it was also used to locate primary emission sources and quantify their contributions to the facility-wide emission rate, revealing the annular vent to be a dominant source. Emissions measured from five different CHOPS sites in Alberta showed large discrepancies between the measured and reported rates, with emissions being mainly underreported. These methane emission rates are placed in the context of current reporting procedures and the role that gas-oil ratio (GOR) measurements play in vented volume estimates. In addition to methane, emissions of higher hydrocarbons were also measured; a chemical “fingerprint” associated with CHOPS wells in this region reveals very low emission ratios of ethane, propane, and aromatics versus methane. The results of this study may inform future studies of CHOPS sites and aid in developing policy to mitigate regional methane emissions. Implications: Methane measurements from cold heavy oil production with sand (CHOPS) sites identify annular venting to be a potentially major source of emissions at these facilities. The measured emission rates are generally larger than reported by operators, with uncertainty in the gas-oil ratio (GOR) possibly playing a large role in this discrepancy. These results have potential policy implications for reducing methane emissions in Alberta in order to achieve the Canadian government’s goal of reducing methane emissions by 40–45% below 2012 levels within 8 yr.

[1] The Aerodyne Research Inc. mobile laboratory performed real-time in-situ measurements of volatile organic compounds, nitrogen oxides, and formaldehyde in Texas City, Texas on 7 May 2009 during the Formaldehyde and olefins from Large Industrial Releases experiment of the 2009 Study of Houston Atmospheric Radical Precursors (SHARP) campaign. Our goal was to identify and quantify emission sources within the largest industrial facility in Texas City most likely responsible for measured concentrations of benzene, an important VOC and hazardous air pollutant. The Houston Advanced Research Center inverse air quality model has been used to infer benzene emission rates from all potential source locations that could account for the benzene concentrations measured by the mobile lab in the vicinity of the facility. A Positive Matrix Factorization receptor model was also applied to the concentrations measured by the mobile lab, the results of which strongly supported the source attribution specified by the inverse model. The two independent source apportionment techniques both implicated flare, storage tank, and ultraformer units in the facility as significant contributors to emission plumes of elevated benzene concentrations observed by the mobile lab. The emissions of some of the flare and tank units were found to be greater than reported in emission inventories by about an order of magnitude.

Methane (CH4) emission rates from a sample of natural gas facilities across industry sectors were quantified using the dual tracer flux ratio methodology. Measurements were conducted in study areas within the Fayetteville shale play, Arkansas (FV, Sept–Oct 2015, 53 facilities), and the Denver-Julesburg basin, Colorado, (DJ, Nov 2014, 21 facilities). Distributions of methane emission rates at facilities by type are computed and statistically compared with results that cover broader geographic regions in the US (Allen et al., 2013, Mitchell et al., 2015). DJ gathering station emission rates (kg CH4 hr–1) are lower, while FV gathering and production sites are statistically indistinguishable as compared to these multi-basin results. However, FV gathering station throughput-normalized emissions are statistically lower than multi-basin results (0.19% vs. 0.44%). This implies that the FV gathering sector is emitting less per unit of gas throughput than would be expected from the multi-basin distribution alone. The most common emission rate (i.e. mode of the distribution) for facilities in this study is 40 kg CH4 hr–1 for FV gathering stations, 1.0 kg CH4 hr–1 for FV production pads, and 11 kg CH4 hr–1 for DJ gathering stations. The importance of study design is discussed, including the benefits of site access and data sharing with industry and of a scientist dedicated to measurement coordination and site choice under evolving wind conditions.

The destruction and removal efficiency (DRE) computation of target hydrocarbon species in the flaring process is derived using carbon balance methodologies. This analysis approach is applied to data acquired during the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality 2010 Flare Study. Example DRE calculations are described and discussed. Carbon balance is achieved to within 2% for the analysis of flare vent gases. Overall method uncertainty is evaluated and examined together with apparent variability in flare combustion performance. Using fast response direct sampling measurements to characterize flare combustion parameters is sufficiently accurate to produce performance curves on a large-scale industrial flare operating at low vent gas flow rates.

The petrochemical industry is a major source of 1,3-butadiene and styrene emissions within the Houston-Galveston area. Both compounds are listed as hazardous air pollutants by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) lists 1,3-butadiene as a highly reactive volatile organic compound. The Aerodyne Mobile Laboratory (AML) was deployed in 2009 as part of the Study of Houston Atmospheric Radical Precursor (SHARP) project to survey the petrochemical complexes in the Houston ship channel area for air toxics releases. This paper describes how the AML, equipped with a modified proton transfer reaction mass spectrometer configured to operate with NO+ as the reagent ion, was used to characterize and quantify fugitive emissions. On April 26, 2009, the AML surveyed the Goodyear Tire and Rubber and Texas Petrochemical (GY-TPC) complex by circumnavigating the facility on public roads while making continuous measurements. The extensive suite of trace gas instrum...

The potential human health and environmental impacts of aircraft gas turbine engine emissions during normal airport operation are issues of growing concern. During the JETS/Aircraft Particle Emissions eXperiment(APEX)-2 and APEX-3 field campaigns, we performed an extensive series of gas phase and particulate emissions measurements of on-wing gas turbine engines. In all, nine different CFM56 style engines (including both CFM56-3B1 and -7B22 models) and seven additional engines (two RB211-535E4-B engines, three AE3007 engines, one PW4158, and one CJ6108A) were studied to evaluate engine-to-engine variability. Specific gas-phase measurements include NO2, NO, and total NOx, HCHO, C2H4, CO, and a range of volatile organic compounds (e.g., benzene, styrene, toluene, naphthalene). A number of broad conclusions can be made based on the gas-phase data set: (1) field measurements of gas-phase emission indices (EIs) are generally consistent with ICAO certification values; (2) speciation of gas phase NOx between NO and NO2 is reproducible for different engine types and favors NO2 at low power (and low fuel flow rate) and NO at high power (high fuel flow rate); (3) emission indices of gas-phase organic compounds and CO decrease rapidly with increasing fuel flow rate; (4) plotting EI-CO or volatile organic compound EIs against fuel flow rate collapses much of the variability between the different engines, with one exception (AE3007); (5) HCHO, ethylene, acetaldehyde, and propene are the most abundant volatile organic compounds present in the exhaust gases that we can detect, independent of engine technology differences. Empirical correlations accurate to within 30% and based on the publicly available engine parameters are presented for estimating EI-NOx and EI-NO2. Engine-to-engine variability, unavailability of combustor input conditions, changing ambient temperatures, and complex reaction dynamics limit the accuracy of global correlations for CO or volatile organic compound EIs.